Monday, May 1, 2017

Now here's something exquisitely lavish for your delight today coming straight from the good old Imperial Russia! Earlier this month Russian national broadcaster has started airing their new historical mini series ANNA KARENINA! The story of the eight episodes is based on the legendary literary classic by one of world's greatest writers Leo Tolstoy, his story "On the Japanese War" and the cycle "Stories about the Japanese War" by V. V. Veresaev.
In the new television production, director Karen Shakhnazarov presents viewers with a new look at the great novel.

COUNT VRON- SKY'SSTORY1904 year. The Russo Japanese War. Manchuria. Together with the army,
the hospital train departs. Doctor Sergei Karenin takes over the management of the hospital as
the senior resident. The hospital is located and settled
in a semi abandoned Chinese village. Karenin operates on a wounded colonel.
Hearing the name of his surgeon, the colonel shudders, he knows him.
The wounded colonel is Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. At night Sergey
Karenin comes to the ward to Vronsky and asks him to tell him why his
mother, ANNA KARENINA, whom the Count knew thirty years ago, rushed
under thetrain. Count Vronsky, in turn, learns that the doctor is the
very Sergei Karenin. After some doubts, the count agrees to tell the
story of his tragic love with Anna Karenina, noting that people remember
only what they are comfortable remembering. Vronsky begins the story ...

SERIES CROWNED WITH A MOVIE

In a tradition characteristic for many Slavic countries, the end of the airing of the television series on the small screens will be marked by the cinematic release of a movie version of the same story. The big screen version titled ANNA KARENINA: VRONSKY'S STORY should arrive into Russian theatres this summer June 8th and the producers will start seeking foreign distributors after the domestic release! The movie and the eight part series were shot and produced at the very same time. The movie wasn't cut from the series material, it was rather shot following a separate script written for the big screen version. If I got it right and if my Russian serves me right, the story of Levin, which makes a huge part of the novel, has been omitted in the series to give more space and focus on the love story between Anna, Vronsky and Karenin. The lead actress Elizaveta Boyarskaya has admitted that it took her about half a year to prepare for the role and study the script and the backstory. Most of the movie, which is considered one of the most lavish ones in the post Soviet Era, was shot under natural lighting including the famous scene of the legendary ball with the biggest number of props and decorative items in any Russian television project in history. Candles that burn for more than eight hours have been produced specially for the shooting and it took about 45 minutes to light them all on the ballroom chandeliers.

They has gone insane here in US. One minute they are thinking Putin is living in the WH, in their closets and under their beds and the next minute they are wanting to bomb innocent countries. This place is filled with cuckoos!

I hear the Brits aren't very different either, they're already saying that Putya has rigged their elections which haven't even been organized yet. It's like Rocky all over again, where Drago uses drugs and all kinds of sf technology for exercising while Rocky trains with sacks of sand. Yea, right. Amuricans are masters of inverting and switching stories.

I seriously hated ANNA KARENINA. I wanted to love it, I really did, but that woman was a self indulgent, lying whore drug addict who was a piss poor mom. I am sure the series will delight the fans of the story, but I'm not sure I could sit through the mini series wanting to strangle that lady all over again.

Kitty and Levin were the only redeeming characters in the whole story, but even that bit couldn't get me to like the book. Then again, I stupidly picked it up on Oprah's recommendation. The first and last time I took her suggestion on what to read.

when it comes to Russian sagas I always find something I might like in them even if I don't like the rest, here it was Levin, in Quiet Flows the Don was the love story instead of war, in Doctor Zhivago something else, in Brother Karamazov the characters etc.

yes, and the whole crew would have to stop the ball and wait for them to be relit. Shooting under natural light instead of using electric ones is a new trend on the telly. I usually don't like it (Wolf Hall was horrid due to it) because it takes a lot from the glitz and glamour, but maybe it works here, we shall see